The More the Merrier Review: Not the Perfect Holiday Medicine
Christmas and Grey’s Anatomy come together to produce an interesting child. The More the Merrier is this holiday baby.
Oh, and holiday babies come in abundance in this small town and hospital. Every holiday season, Hallmark premieres a large number of movies. They can become repetitive.
Therefore, The More the Merrier is for Hallmark fans who want a change. It has all the familiar Hallmark and holiday film tropes: small town, finding spirit of Christmas, a budding love story, and someone realizing they’re right where they belong.
Nevertheless, it happens in a hospital, so it feels different than the other similar Hallmark movies. We’re watching doctors fall in love.
It’s very different.
The More the Merrier also feels a little unique than the typical Hallmark movie because it reminds you more of a pilot episode than a TV movie.
This film could have easily been the introduction to a new show set in this small town, following the staff at this fictional hospital. The only issue is that the side characters are more appealing than the leads.
Alice and Brian are a very attractive pair and have fine chemistry. They just are kind of dull.
Their romance just doesn’t inspire much swooning and admiration. They could be any appealing couple, but they aren’t unique or special — at least not as much as you want from holiday heroes and heroines.
The characters around than carry The More the Merrier. We start the film with three pregnant women.
As you can predict, they all give birth on Christmas despite that being statistically highly unlikely — as we’re told early in the movie.
Each one of these stories have some fascinating details (such as one woman about to have her sixth and seventh child — insane). Then we meet a boy with a heart problem who bonds with a classmate while trapped in the hospital.
These are fascinating stories. If The More the Merrier did become a show, we would tune in for these characters more than for Alice and Brian.
Sorry to these romantic leads.
They’re all right as characters and a decent Hallmark couple. They’re just a lot less interesting than everything else happening around them.
The More the Merrier succeeds in creating this small town and world. You want to visit it repeatedly, but it lacks in bringing a couple who you yearn to see together.
You want to know more about what happens next with these side characters. The small town appeals to you. It quickly becomes apparent why Alice cannot leave the town and why it draws in Brian.
Brian and Alice are okay to watch in this one-off movie but would need some work to carry a TV series or series of movies. They just lack some flare. The characters are fine but you don’t want fine with holiday movies.
You want magic. This film lacks some holiday pizazz.
The More the Merrier isn’t a standout Hallmark movie. However, it could have been an excellent show. It’s okay for a holiday weekend watch, but likely not a movie you constantly revisit.
What did you think of The More the Merrier? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to leave your own rating!
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CatchThe More the Merrier on Hallmark Channel or streaming on The Hallmark+.
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Jerrica Tisdale
Jerrica Tisdale is your favorite neighborhood pop culture junkie. She will annoy you with random TV and film facts, while complaining about whatever is the hottest new book. She has been a TV fan all her life but writing about it for over a decade. You may find her work all over the internet especially reality TV rants. She is a senior writer at Tell-Tale TV.